This would go far to account for the manifest superiority of
the later work, but throughout the score it is easy to note the enhanced
power and certainty of the composer in dealing even with the less
interesting parts of the story. Much of 'Tannhaeuser' is conventional,
but it nevertheless shows a great advance on 'Der Fliegende Hollaender,'
in the disposal of the scenes as much as in the mere treatment of the
voices. But in the orchestra the advance is even more manifest. The
guiding theme, which in 'Der Fliegende Hollaender' only makes fitful and
timid appearances, is used with greater boldness, and with increased
knowledge of its effect. Wagner had as yet, it is true, but little
conception of the importance which this flexible instrument would assume
in his later works; but such passages as the orchestral introduction to
the third act, and Tannhaeuser's narration, give a foretaste of what the
composer was afterwards to achieve by this means. So far as orchestral
colour is concerned, too, the score of Tannhaeuser is deeply interesting
to the student of Wagner's development. Here we find Wagner for the
first time consistently associating a certain instrument or group of
instruments with one of the characters, as, for instance, the trombones
with the pilgrims, and the wood-wind with Elisabeth. This plan--which is
in a certain sense the outcome of the guiding theme system--he was
afterwards to develop elaborately.
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